" The Petrified Forest." At the Globe Theatre.
THE THEATRE
THIS play by the American writer Robert Sherwood made a stir in his own country, and a film version was made which I have not seen but I can imagine its being better as a film than play, since its effect depends largely on local colour. No doubt in the film we were shown the Petrified Forest itself, which in the play is some distance away from the gasoline station and lunch-bar at the crossroads in the Arizona desert where the action takes place. The Petrified Forest is the playwright's symbol for the state of life of the present inhabitants in that part of Arizona, 1934, now that its earlier pioneering days are over, and a hiking writer who turns up at the lunch-bar on his way across the continent discovers in the waitress daughter of the bar-keeper a young girl who reads poetry and paints, and is longing to get away to a richer and more intel- lectual life. Her mother was French and France is her dream. It is Tchekhov's " Moscow! " " Moscow! " of The Three Sisters, but where Tchekhov is profoundly poignant with his deep sense of the sadness of human aspirations and his insight into human character, Mr. Sherwood is just sentimental and superficial. We don't believe in the girl or the futile wandering writer who gets himself killed by a gangster, after altering his insurance policy in her favour so that her dream of seeing France may come true. Not for one brief instant do they matter, to us or to themselves. Nevertheless, Mr. Sherwood evokes a certain atmosphere of the Arizona desert and its still half-pioneering life which stirs our curiosity, and he has provided some mildly exciting gangster thrills. For the rest many a man would be willing to take a trip to the Arizona desert itself to see Miss Constance Cummings, who almost makes her part con- vincing, while Mr. Owen Nares gives the impression that a real living character has strayed into Mr. Sherwood's play.
JAMES REDFERN.
Previous page
